asahi.com : Asahi Haikuist Network

August 06-07, 2005

	Paper cranes Memorial Day no more Hiroshima --Doc Sunday (Hiroshima)		Morning rain a dimly lit town quiet the Danube --Tatsuko Toshima (Aomori)

	Morning dream my parent's garden: butterfly --Barbara Casterline (Nagoya)		A monarch rising over streetcar doors open at the stoplight --Marshall Hryciuk (Canada)

	Beside him in a fading photo smiling me --Teruko Omoto (Osaka)		Pastoral name tags in sheep ears summer breeze --Tenshi Sakai (Tokyo)

	Grandfather who built his dead sons a grave each --Yutaka Kitajima (Niigata)		Seasonal highs toll wind chimes allusive mystics... kamis be with you --Patrick Arcouet (France)

	My lovely angel under a blanket of white she sleeps forever --Ryne Richards (Kitakyushu)

MITSUAKI KOJIMA

Doc Sunday's haiku takes us back 60 years to the day the world's first atomic bomb was dropped from a plane, destroying 90 percent of Hiroshima.

Charlie Smith and Stuart Walker sent these next haiku from North Carolina and Hokkaido, respectively, where they sympathize with those finding it difficult to achieve lasting peace.

Peace dove flies
sixty-year journey
no nest sites

Deep forest
threatening the peace
the wind growls

Udo Wenzel heard the peaceful cooing of a child drifting off to sleep in Hamburg, Germany. Kuniko Ogura's peace of mind ended when she awoke from a dream in Osaka-Sayama.

Summer evening
a la la la from
momma's lap

Summer night
plane's sound fades away
with my dream

Barbara Casterline's daydream took her back to the home where she grew up. In composing her haiku she poses the rhetorical question: "The house has been sold, and my father has passed on, but ... the garden is still there, more beautiful than ever?" The sight of a colorful East Indian shrub of the loosestrife family reminded Kiyoshi Fukuzawa of his beloved mother. Kuniko Ogura was startled when a painting she was gazing at in Osaka seemed to come alive.

Crape myrtle ...
first summer recalled
Mother's grave

Summer dream:
butterflies flitting
in her poppy painting

Zackary Glenn recalls lullabies when he finds time to close his eyes and reminisce in Illinois. In Yamanashi, Marites Omori visualizes the first smile she ever saw.

The maroon recliner rocks
I close my eyes
to hear mom's soothing song

Mother's Day
just imagining
her sweet smile

Paul Conneally found a creative way to measure an interval of relief this summer in London. Nobuko Masakawa traveled by bus to see the famous megaliths at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England.

Fresh at last!
rain collects in mum's
wide-brimmed hat

Double-deck
to the druid stones
read in school

Want to try composing haiku ?

Back numbers

The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears August 20. Haiku about the Bon Festival, the Buddhist observance of ancestors, are welcome. Readers can mail haiku to David McMurray at the International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun, 5-3-2 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8011. A color version of the Asahi Haikuist Network can be seen at www.asahi.com/english/haiku.

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